Association of serum biomarkers level transforming growth factor- β and tumor necrosis factor- α with diabetic neuropathy

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Many studies have examined the role of inflammation in the development of diabetic neuropathy (DPN).

OBJECTIVE:

Evaluate the relation of the serum level of Transforming Growth Factor- $\beta$ and Tumor Necrosis Factor- $\alpha$ and development of diabetic peripheral neuropathy DPN.

METHODS:

In a case-control study, randomly selected 140 diabetic patients were included, the randomly selected patients were divided equally and matched into a case group who have diabetic peripheral neuropathy and diabetic neuropathy-free patients as a control group. For both groups whole blood sample was examined to compare for (TGF- $\beta$ ), and (TNF- $\alpha$ ) levels determination by ELISA technique.

RESULTS:

The age of the study samples ranged from 25 to 80 years with a male ratio of 1.45:1 although the sex differences between both groups were not significant. The mean levels of (TNF- $\alpha$ ) and (TGF- $\beta$ ) was significantly higher among cases group than that of controls group (254.86 $\pm$ 75.9 vs158.01 $\pm$ 50.600) for TNF- $\alpha$ and for TGF- $\beta$ (312.85 $\pm$ 62.27 vs. 217.82 $\pm$ 52.95) respectively. Both TNF- $\alpha$ and TGF- $\beta$ have high sensitivity and specificity in detection of DPN. The sensitivity of TNF- $\alpha$ was 95.7% and specificity of 61.4% area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.870 $\pm$ 0.029, while the sensitivity of TGF- $\beta$ was 91.4%, and specificity of 67.1 with good area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.891 $\pm$ 0.026 ( $P=$ 0.000).

CONCLUSIONS:

TNF- $\alpha$ and TGF - $\beta$ are significantly elevated levels in patients with DPN, these cytokines could be used as indicators for the development of DPN.